Couch to 50k NUTRITION

Summary

In this episode, the hosts discuss the importance of nutrition for those training for their first ultra marathon. They explore various dietary approaches, including keto and veganism, and share personal experiences with how different diets have affected their running performance. The conversation emphasizes the significance of healthy eating, especially leading up to races, and the role of caffeine and alcohol in training and recovery. Ultimately, they advocate for a balanced approach to nutrition that allows for enjoyment while maintaining health and performance.

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Takeaways

Healthy eating is crucial for endurance training.

Different diets like keto and vegan can impact performance.

Personal experiences with nutrition vary widely among runners.

Caffeine can be used strategically for training and races.

Alcohol should be limited, especially before races.

Nutrition affects energy levels during training and races.

Avoid processed foods for better health and performance.

Moderation is key in enjoying food while training.

Recovery nutrition is important for muscle rebuilding.

Finding a balance between enjoyment and health is essential.

Sound bites

"It's a personal choice, it really is."

"Caffeine is a hell of a drug."

"Nutrition is really important there."

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
What's up man? What's up dude?
How we doing good man. How are things?
Good, good. An episode that we debated not
even doing. Yes, it's so subjective, but
want to talk about nutrition? This is Couch to 50K How to
finish your first ultra marathon.

(00:25):
To be clear, not talking about fueling, not talking about what
we're doing in training during the race, but what we're eating
outside of that, just day-to-day, trying to be
healthy, right? So hundreds of different schools
of thought, I'm sure, just like general nutrition for life.

(00:46):
But we can talk a little bit specifically about how it
applies to fitness and endurancein in general.
I think, you know, healthy wins.I think that's pretty obvious,
right? We we here in the United States
have lots of processed foods. And, you know, it tends to be

(01:09):
like the cheaper and easier it is, the worse it is for you.
Unfortunately, yeah, which I think is, you know, leads to a
lot of problems that we see. But so if we wanted to talk
about a couple of the more popular, you know, styles of
nutrition, I guess it might be one way to think about it.

(01:29):
There's, there's a keto contingent.
I see a lot of vegan, vegetarianultra runners.
And yeah, I don't know. What do you think?
What like what's worked for you?Where?
Give me a a personal story maybe?
Yeah. Well, I've done keto.
Keto's worked well for me beforein the past.

(01:49):
I've, I've done things that haven't worked well for me in
the past. Again, I, I think you nailed it
when you talked about being healthy.
It's, it's almost why we didn't.Well, we talked about not doing
this because it's like it's kindof obvious that, you know, the
healthier you are, whether you're of the keto school or

(02:11):
vegan, vegetarian, just in general, eating a healthy diet
is going to serve you well in life.
Also in in running, there's definitely going to be some, you
know, very heated debates on theideas that like keto, which you

(02:33):
know, so for people not in the know keto, what the premise is,
is that if you cut carbohydratesout of your diet and you focus
on high fat and protein, that your body will enter a state of
ketosis where it is producing ketones that you are using for

(02:54):
energy as opposed to burning your glycogen storage, your
sugars. Now, whether or not that is a
good thing is like kind of the debate, right?
I can tell you from my from my personal experience, I found
that cutting carbohydrates out really leveled out my energy.

(03:18):
So I I really wasn't spiking in the day like in accordance with
the foods that I was eating. It wasn't like my energy was
related at all to what I was eating.
It was like I woke up and I had the same energy all day long and
then I went to bed and granted, like I didn't quite feel like I

(03:41):
had the like, like the high octane level of energy, like
the, you know, like the like thepeak, but I also didn't have the
lows and I didn't have the like afternoon nap need.
And and then in terms of running, like the way it made me

(04:02):
felt or the way it made me feel,running was like I could run
forever. It was crazy.
Like it was really like without eating a lot of food, I could
really like burn a slow consistent energy like all day,
which was really cool. Now, like the downside was like
it was super challenging, like very, very challenging.

(04:24):
A huge commitment to overhaul your whole diet.
It is like borderline psychopathic, like in terms of
like, you want to go out to eat,you know, and everybody like
there's carbs and everything. Like especially when you go to a
restaurant, it's like, oh, you can't have salad dressing, You
can't have any sides. You can't put any of the sauce

(04:45):
on the meat, you know, like there's just, it's so
restrictive. And in order to like make that
diet work for you at home, you're spending an enormous
amount of time preparing food. It's like, you know, it's so you
become like a chef. You know, you're trying to like
make meals with like, how many avocados can I eat?

(05:07):
You know, and like, granted, thefood is good, it's delicious
food. You're eating a lot of meat, a
lot of nuts, a lot of like dairystuff, but it is time consuming
and it it does require like a little bit of a life change.
It's like you really got to be you really got to want to do

(05:30):
that. And that's probably what it's
like. I've never done vegan
vegetarian, but that's probably the same thing, right?
You're like restricting this whole other, you know, you like
all these other foods, like everything becomes like a
choice. You're now it's like constant,
like constant like having to choose the right thing and you

(05:56):
know, that's a challenge. That's a like a, a major
challenge. Overhauling your diet in any, in
any way is a challenge. But you know, I, I mean, I've, I
know people that just eat fruit and they run really, really far
a lot and they only eat fruit. So, you know, it's, it's a

(06:17):
personal, it really is. You know, it's like, I, I, I
don't know that there's one way,especially when we're talking in
like the couch to 50K program. We're like, we're not talking
about like to be an Olympic level athlete, the way you need
to eat. We're just kind of talking about
like, if you, you know, want to get the most out of this

(06:37):
program, like you probably want to lay off the processed foods.
You probably want to find a healthy diet.
And then maybe you want to startto consider some other things
like like fasting, like how muchwater you're drinking when
you're eating and like what you're eating, what like when
that might be even more important than like, you know,

(07:00):
like what you're eating is like when you're eating it.
So yeah, man, it's just such a huge topic.
And there's, there's a lot. I, I did, I'll give you an
example. I did keto leading up to your
A-100. I was super strict for like 4
months. I had almost no carbs.

(07:21):
I think I had like a little slice of birthday cake on my
birthday. Really should cut out alcohol,
cut out caffeine, cut out sugar.Like, you know, obviously that's
a in the cutting out the carbs you have to get rid of the
sugar. But for me it was like not
eating any candy. Like that's you'd be surprised

(07:41):
at like how much sugar you can eat if it's just candy and still
be under the like sugar limit, you know, but like cut it all
out like they'd and I had an incredible I've I really, I
performed really well. It was one of my best runs that
I've that I've ever had. It was a ton of work and, and I

(08:06):
credit a lot of that to like theoverhaul of the diet and the
discipline of the diet. And then one time I, I, I didn't
do that and I didn't, I actuallywasn't even training for a race.
So there's other factors, but I had the opportunity to jump into
a race and I was just eating a normal diet.
And the night before the race, Iate like a pizza, Domino's BBQ

(08:30):
chicken pizza and. Carb loads.
Right, right, exactly. And I was like and like for the
1st 30 miles of the race, that'sall I could taste, that's all I
could eat. And I was just heavy.
And like there was a lot of factors that led into it, but
one of them was my nutrition andmy nutrition was just not right.

(08:52):
And IDNFD, you know, I got to mile 40 and I just couldn't, I
couldn't keep going and I didn'twant to and I wasn't in the
right place. And you know, those are two
extremes, I mean, and just part of the factors that led to it.
But like, it's like looking backon it, like, you know, well.

(09:13):
I think there is one we can kindof bottom line it a little bit,
which is nice because we are talking about trying to complete
your first ultra marathon. We're not trying to to do what
you did at your A, we're not trying to win Olympic gold,
right. And that's when maybe you do
need to get super aggressive andbe perfect and pick that the
diet that aligns with your body chemistry and and all those

(09:37):
types of things. But just to get there, to get
through the training, to get through the race, I think there
is a a base level of let's be healthy.
Yeah, right. You know, and most people know
what that means, at least to a certain degree, right.
You know, it's not eating pizza the night before your race,
right. I mean, it could be maybe that's

(09:57):
maybe that's what you eat. Yeah, but you might eat.
It's probably like a thin crust Margarita, you know, at like
3:00 PM, Like, you know, not at 9:00 PM Domino's like thick
crust. Yeah, that's funny.
No, but you, but you are right. And I, you know, I, there are
some little tips and these are kind of borderline nutrition

(10:20):
fueling things. Like I did mention cutting out
caffeine. I use caffeine as a training
tool. Absolutely.
You know, like the more you get into like the depths of your
training, the better caffeine's going to work for you in the
morning to help you get out the door for the run.
But you know, as they say, caffeine, it's a hell of a drug

(10:45):
and you cut it out of your, of your life for like 10 days or so
leading up to the race. And then you strategically use
it in the race because it really, it's a stimulant and it,
it will, but you build a tolerance to it.
And so you want to get the Max, you want to maximize the
benefits of that, like use it intraining, use it as a tool to

(11:09):
help you get through training, but cut it out just before the
race. And then, you know, on race
morning, right before the race, maybe you're going to have a cup
of coffee. And now you're going to like
really feel the benefits of thatcaffeine that's, you know, kind
of a little, you know, it's not quite like going full keto, you

(11:29):
know, you're not overhauling your whole thing, but it's quite
the challenge to stop drinking coffee for 10 days right before
your race. You know, so it's, it's, it's
tapping into that, you know, just a just a little bit.
Same thing with alcohol. I mean, alcohol, obviously
you're not going to bring it into the race like caffeine as a

(11:51):
performance enhancer, but you know, cut out alcohol for three
weeks before the race and you'd be surprised at how good you
feel. Yeah.
Well, I mean, at this point, I think it's it's pretty
scientifically based fact that alcohol is basically just
poison, right. I mean, it's certainly not good
for the body. You're watching us drink beers
here in certain episodes, but it's 1, you know, Like, there's

(12:15):
a big difference between going for a run, drinking a beer and
and your body being able to metabolize that really quickly.
Yeah. Absolutely.
Whereas, you know, a few months ago, sitting on a couch drinking
two or three watching a movie, you're kind of just doing damage
to the body, right? Yeah, I think that's a really
good point. I did want to go back to also
to, to what you said about the energy level of while you were

(12:38):
doing keto. I think that's really important,
especially in training too, because it there are those times
when you haven't prepared your body from a nutrition
standpoint, right, to do the training that you need to do.
And then I think the more consistent that you can be with
the decent healthy food, you know, especially surrounding the

(12:58):
workouts is going to make, it's going to make it easier to get
out the door. Yeah, right.
Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, you don't, you don't
take all the joy out of your life.
But like if you, if you're a person that wakes up in the
morning and runs like right whenyou wake up, like, see if you
notice the difference between eating dessert and not eating
dessert, just give it a couple. Just give it a few tries like

(13:21):
the night before. Yeah, like the night before.
And like then, you know, maybe just, you know, lay off it for a
little bit as you lean, you go in and then, you know, reward
yourself after the race. You know, you know it.
It's funny because it go back toyour a man.
All I wanted was pancakes and like, and that run took me 32

(13:46):
hours that that race and I woke up the next day and at the race
was still going on. It's like got a 50 hour cut off.
So I woke up and I just got up and I walked into town and I
went and go got I was like, I'm going to get pancakes.
This is like the first thing that I did when I woke up and

(14:08):
dude it messed my stomach up so bad.
Like it was so it was crazy how quickly I was like running to
the toilet after not eating carbs for like 4 months and then
you having this huge thing and then go and be like, yo give me
like a triple stack of like, youknow, pancakes.
You just. Syrup all over it, you know.

(14:28):
Absolute. Bliss for 10.
Minutes, right? And then pain.
Yeah. And and, you know, but, you
know, I'll take that any day like that reward, you know, it's
not like, you know, eating pancakes is, is horrible for
you. Just like we're trying to do
something. We're trying to, you know, get
ourselves into shape to go run arace and, you know, delayed

(14:50):
gratification, you know, push, push some of some of that stuff
off a little bit and, you know, give your body like the it's
best chance at getting through this.
Yeah, I think I some of it to megoes to prevention as well.
You know, I got that's nutritionis a big part of how we can stay
healthy. It's the one thing I'm I'm most

(15:11):
scared of during this process isgetting really sick or injured
and it it throwing the whole thing off.
And now I'm not even able to race.
You can't even toe the line on the day that is, isn't it?
That comes back to nutrition as well.
It comes back to a lot of things, right?
But nutrition is really important there.
I, I've noticed myself get sick,especially after races, right?

(15:35):
You go out and do a really hard effort and then you go
celebrate, right? Oh, I'm going to go, yeah,
there's free beer at the finish line.
I'll have one of those. OK, Now they're going to Take Me
Out to dinner. I'm going to have a couple more
drinks. And next thing you know, on a
completely depleted system, you've put in all this stuff
that you haven't had in two weeks because you're trying to
be perfect. And I wake up the next day with

(15:56):
the flu or whatever it is, right?
And it's like I've done that more times than I'd like to
admit because, you know, becauseit's, because celebrating is fun
for sure, right. But I, I think you track that
into the training too, in a, in a, in a smaller way, which which
rears its head within the specific nutrition, right?
If you can do a better job with your nutrition the night before

(16:18):
your long run, you're going to have more fun on your long run,
right? And you're going to feel better
afterwards. I mean, you're probably still
beat up afterwards, but that's when we get into recovery.
But that's a different episode. So we'll.
I love candy. Like that's my thing, dude.
I and like man, running really far.
The amount of sugar that your body can just like take down.

(16:40):
It's, it's like dangerous how much sugar I feel like I can
just eat and, you know, and there's a sense of like, well,
I'm not fat, so it's not doing anything bad to me.
But but then yeah, I don't know where I heard it or where I I
saw it, but it's stuck with me. And it's really actually, it's

(17:00):
helped me a lot because I would always eat a lot of candy after
like I ran or after a long, a long thing.
And then I read something like, you know, when you break your
body down, you break your muscles down, like what do you
think it gets built back up with?
And that's the food that you eatafterwards.

(17:21):
And it's like, if I'm just building my muscles with like
Mike and Ikes, like, I don't know that that's going to do the
trick, you know? And so I, I did start to like,
you know, that helped me kind ofconsider like, OK, what am I
putting into my body, especiallyat like, in like the recovery
sense of like, what are the first things that I'm getting

(17:41):
into my body after I. I work out really hard or after
a really long run, just is that what I'm building my muscles
with? Is that what I'm rebuilding my
body with in that, you know, I would rather have like, muscles
built from like, you know, saladand steak then, you know, Mike
and Ike's, no matter how good Mike and Ike's.

(18:02):
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Yeah, I love it. I think we can, we can baseline
that a little bit with, you know, we're just trying to get
through our first one here. Let's be healthy, let's avoid
the process stuff and, and the other things like alcohol and,
and there's plenty of things outthere that are negative, but we
know what they are. Everyone knows what they are.
And, and especially the closer you get to those longer training

(18:27):
blocks and, and the race of course itself, the better we can
be, the more fun we're going to have, the better our body's
going to feel. But yeah, I mean, you know,
there's, there's still room for cheat days here and there where
you can do your thing and, and let loose a little bit and
reward yourself. I think there's a lot of sanity
that goes into that. Right.

(18:47):
Like they like keto and and these other really, really
stringent diets that are hard tofollow that take a lot of
planning and effort. Sometimes you wake up, you know,
maybe it's Sunday morning and you don't want to do that for
the day. And hopefully you've planned
that day and it's at the right moment where it's like, OK, I
get I get to cheat today. I'm going to go eat the pizza.

(19:09):
I'm going to drink a beer. I don't have to do a huge
workout in the morning. But tomorrow morning I'm going
to wake up and get back on that healthy diet so that we can keep
pushing forward. Yeah, ma'am.
Yeah, yeah. I think that's great, great
advice for people. Yeah, I like it, Mike.
It's it's one more bit of moderation advice.
I think, you know, it's just like, let's keep it even keel do

(19:31):
do the common sense things that that make sense and then we can
get into even even more tips andtricks, I think with fuelling
and and recovery when we talk about those.
Yeah, man, you don't want to notenjoy your life just so that you
can go out and run for six hours.
It's not getting, it's not sustainable for for most people,

(19:51):
right? You know, like that's again,
we're not, we're not training togo to the Olympics here.
And not that those people don't enjoy their lives, but like,
let's be realistic about what we're doing.
And let's try trying to find a agood spot there in the middle
that allows us to enjoy our lifeand be healthy and run.

(20:12):
Sounds great. So you like it.
All right, Be healthy. Cheers.
All right, see you now. Couch to 50K is an elevated
SoCal project. All rights reserved.